


Heroics, and What They Get You

by pyalgroundblz (acidtonguejenny)



Category: I Robot (2004), The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-01
Updated: 2011-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 00:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/206847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidtonguejenny/pseuds/pyalgroundblz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry can't believe it actually got to this point. Brief; what our favorite wizard was up to during the climax of I, Robot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroics, and What They Get You

Harry can't believe it actually got to this point.

Seriously, it was too much like a science-fiction novel. Didn't people read those anymore, with their fancy little computer-books?

The gathering mob passes his barred and Warded window as Harry watches; Mouse too, with his paws braced on the sill. The city itself is thrumming with the energy of an encroaching fight, but Harry, immune, is decidedly dour. Obviously, he has no illusions about charging nobly into battle, consequence free. Not anymore.

"This is going to be bloody." He tells Mouse, his mouth set and grim.

The dog looks up at him, and gives him one of his uncanny Mouse-looks which translates all too clearly into, why are we still here?

Harry shrugs, and considers the people outside. His eyes pick out a number of teenagers, clumsily welding shotguns and baseball bats.

That kind of cinches it. Mouse huffs approvingly as he gathers a few essentials—rod and staff, duster, a couple of new things he's been inching to field test—and locks the door behind them. Mounting the steps outside he pauses, looking thoughtfully up at the old boarding house.

He trades a glance with Mouse.

"You think I should?"

Mouse chuffs, and Harry raises the Heavy Duty wards with a grunt of effort. It feels like lifting a 4th of July cooler over his head, and a small fraction of magic disappears from his gut. The new, younger boarders aren't as fond of him as the old folks that used to tolerate his 'wild parties', but they're still his neighbors.

Whistling, Harry bisects the line of Chicagonians and cuts away from the group. He takes alleys and narrow, echoing side roads, until he's surpassed the head of the line and has begun to come up on the robots' area.

A trio of NS-5s appear from around a corner and nearly spot him. He rubs the pad of one thumb over the quarter in his pocket, feels it grow warm and spark against toughened skin as the prepared veil covers him from sight.

_Thank god I was able to test this before today. It would be just my luck if they could see through veils._

The spell was similar to one of Molly's, and was much more thorough that what Harry could usually pull off. It looked as if the marching machines were going to pass him by, unaware…But when the first of them came too near, it slowed. Its movements, before smooth as those of a being of natural life, become jerky and ungraceful. The features of its polymer face slacken into expressionlessness as its processes come to an almost audible halt. The other two have come even with it before realizing something is wrong and Harry watches, amused, as they crumpled to the ground in a pile of parts. The red lights in their chests flicker and blink out.

"That was cool." He tells Mouse, who sneezes.

Harry doesn't go to the frontlines, and he steers clear of the U.S. Robotics complex, intent on leaving the heroics to someone else. Instead, he takes out small pockets of NS-5's and saves what fellow citizens he can from the worst injury.

There's a lot of commotion coming from the complex, for a long time. Eventually something major happens—a hero must have shown up after all—and the NS-5's turn blue and friendly again. In the morning while cleaning up the mess, the authorities find bots with fried circuitry and massively dented casings, as well as various other types of strange damage. They don't think much of it.

After all, this is Chicago: the city where dinosaur skeletons go missing from museums, and buildings come down regularly. What's a few busted robots?

**Author's Note:**

> While reading the TvTropes page for the movie _I, Robot_ and watching the actual film, I thought, poor Harry would barely be able to walk done the street with all that tech. Then: *blink blink*.
> 
> So, yup :)


End file.
